Big Story Talking Points

1. Creation
• “In the beginning” only God existed, nothing or no one else…
just God!
• But as the “Creator God” of the Bible, God created “stuff” –
angels, heavens & earth, plants & animals
and then mankind (“human beings”)—God’s crowning act of
creation!
• And God gave to man the privilege and responsibility of being His
vice-regent, to rule over His creation.
• God made life very simple for the first man and woman –
He gave them just one rule (one “law”) —
“Eat of any tree in the beautiful Garden, except for one tree—
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
2. Fall
• The first two chapters of the Bible were untainted by sin.
But, that changed in chapter three.
• Genesis chapter 3 = one of most important chapters in the Bible
because it explains a lot about ourselves and the world we see.
• Adam and “the woman” disobeyed God and experienced:
Guilt – Shame – Fear! (experiences we all still struggle with)
• But being a gracious God, God promised that an offspring of the
woman would conquer Satan, the archenemy of God who had
tempted her to disobey.
• In an act of faith (believing God’s promise to provide offspring),
Adam gave the woman the name “Eve” (meaning “life giver”).
• THEN (after that act of faith) – God clothed Adam and Eve with
coverings made of animal skins.
3. Flood
• Some of us may think – “Oh, I wouldn’t have disobeyed!”
But all of Adam and Eve’s children and grandchildren and great
grandchildren disobeyed—they sinned! (and we do too!).
• So by the time a man named “Noah” lived, the world was
“exceedingly wicked” – so much so that God chose to destroy it.
• But Noah found grace in God’s sight, because Noah was righteous
and walked with God.
• So God instructed Noah to build a huge boat (“ark”) – equal to the
size of 500 rail road cars or 1500 semi-trailers today.
It was the largest floating vessel ever until mid-19th century!
• After Noah and representatives of all kinds of animals were safe
inside the ark, God closed the door—to shut them in and to shut
others out.
• And in that way, God preserved the kinds of life He had created.
4. Babel
• The descendants of Noah (who all spoke a common language)
migrated to the land of Shinar, near the Euphrates River.
• They said “Let’s 1build a city and a 2tower that reaches…
and 3make a name for ourselves, LEST we be scattered….”
• The tower was a zig-gu-rat – a stepped tower (many levels). The
top was thought to be a “gateway of the gods.”
• At bottom of tower was a temple, down to which the “gods” were
supposed to descend to meet with the people.
• But the true GOD (the God of the Bible) came down instead and He
confused their language, which caused them to disperse all over
the earth.
• As they dispersed, these people carried with them their false ideas
about “gods” wherever they went.
5. Patriarchs
• Even though there were a lot of false god-views spreading
throughout the world, the LORD God of the Bible was working to
bring people back to Himself.
• The focus in God’s plan turned to one man (“Abram” /
“Abraham”)—from a family of moon-worshipers in Ur (near what is
now the Persian Gulf). God called Abram to go to a land he had
never seen—the land of Canaan.
• And God promised to give this land to Abram’s descendants, as well
as a very extensive family and some unique blessings.
• Even though God promised an extensive family to Abram, he was
100 years old before his promised son (Isaac) would be born.
• Isaac’s son Jacob was a deceitful man whose life God changed and
gave the name “Israel”—who became the father of Judah, Joseph,
and ten other brothers who were important to God’s plan.
6. Moses
• Four books of the Bible tell us the story of the life and ministry of
Moses. How…
1. God prepared him.
2. God called him to be a leader.
3. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt (and parted the waters of
the Red Sea to make that happen!) and through a great
wilderness—journey that took much longer than expected!
• BUT most important, how –
4. Moses taught the Israelites to…
o Reverence the LORD God and worship Him
o Offer substitute sacrifices to atone for their sins—
personally and as a nation.
7. Joshua
• When Moses died, the Israelites must have thought – “How will we
ever replace him?!” But they didn’t have to—God would do that.
• God spoke to Joshua, who had been Moses’ servant and said,
“Just as I was with Moses, even so I’ll be with you!”
• And God demonstrated His faithfulness to that promise:
Just as God used Moses to part the Red Sea for the Israelites to
cross on dry land, 40 years later God stopped the flooded Jordan
River for the same purpose under Joshua’s leadership.
• The story of Joshua’s leadership is divided into two sections in the
book that bears his name:
o Joshua led the Israelites in defeating the ungodly Canaanites
nations who inhabited the promised land of Canaan.
o Joshua wisely divided the land into 12 sections and distributed
these to the twelve tribes of Israel.
8. Judges
• The era of the judges was one of the darkest times in the life of the
nation Israel—politically and spiritually.
• For more than 300 years—several downward spiraling sin-cycles
characterized this era:
1. The people would turn from the LORD God to worship idols.
2. God would send oppressors (Moabites, Midianites,
Canaanites, etc.) to rob and intimidate them.
3. The people would cry to the LORD God for deliverance.
4. God would raise up “judges” to deliver them. But these
so-called “judges” were local and generally not virtuous
people.
• But the last judge – Samuel was the best! He was a godly man
who was well-respected by most all the people in the entire land.
9. Monarchy
• “We don’t care how good a leader Samuel is,” the people must have
said. They insisted on having a king “like all the other nations.”
• So God gave them what they wanted—sort of. God didn’t give
them a king-only monarchy, but He did give them a theocraticmonarchy—He would rule over them through a human king.
• Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, was head and shoulders taller
than his peers and seemed like an obvious choice to be Israel’s first
king, but flaws in his character gradually doomed him.
• Then David, from the tribe of Judah—a not-so-obvious candidate to
be king–proved to be Israel’s greatest king because He was a “man
after God’s own heart.” God promised David that his dynasty would
be an everlasting dynasty.
• David’s son Solomon got off to a great start, but his commitment to
the one true God faltered under the influence of pagan wives.
10. Division
• Israel’s temporarily realized dream of 12 tribes united in one great
kingdom began to deteriorate when Solomon pursued false gods.
• But it was Solomon’s son Rehoboam who made the fatal mistake of
listening to foolish advice. King Rehoboam’s decision to be more
autocratic than his father resulted in a division of the kingdom.
• Ten northern tribes followed Jeroboam as their king and became
known as the “Northern Kingdom” or “Israel.” All 20 kings who
ruled this Northern Kingdom were evil.
• Rehoboam’s “Southern Kingdom” was left with only two southern
tribes—Judah and Benjamin. It became known simply as the
Kingdom of Judah, after the name of its more prominent tribe.
• More than half of Judah’s kings were evil, but there were a few
notable exceptions of good or godly kings.
11. Exile
• But the worst was not over for Israel and Judah. Their continued
slide into apostasy (“turning away from God”) eventually led to
God’s judgment in the form of exiles for both kingdoms.
• God was less patient with the Northern Kingdom, because of
their long unbroken succession of evil kings. In 722 B.C. the
mighty and fearsome kingdom of Assyria conquered Israel and
scattered most of the Israelites throughout other parts of
Assyria’s kingdom—never to return or be heard from again!
• Beginning in about 605 B.C., Babylonians captured Judah and
began to exile them in waves to Babylon.
• But Jeremiah, a faithful prophet of God who remained in
Jerusalem during most of the time of exile, predicted that the
Jewish captives would return from exile after 70 years.
12. Return
• As was just mentioned, those exiled from the Northern Kingdom by
the Assyrians never returned!
• But, just as Jeremiah had predicted, Jews from the Babylonian exile
did begin to return in 536 B.C.
o Zerubbabel led a group of about 50,000 Jews who returned
from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
o Later, Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city’s
walls.
o Ezra, a priest and scribe, returned to Jerusalem to lead the
people in a revived commitment to God’s law.
• But, perhaps the highlights of this era were the prophecies of
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi – who preached and wrote about a
coming Jewish King and a bright future for God’s people.